D&D: Public Opinion and Accessibility

[Woas]

I dunno. Are there any good home videos of a bunch of friends sitting around a table enjoying round or three of pinnachle and idly chit-chatting? D&D is sort of boring for those not involved.

 

[Glyfair]

I dunno. Are there any good home videos of a bunch of friends sitting around a table enjoying round or three of pinnachle and idly chit-chatting? D&D is sort of boring for those not involved.

I will note that very popular show in the 50s was "Championship Bridge" with Charles Goren. Bridge is not the most exciting spectator sport. On the other hand, there has been a spectator element involved (at national tournaments the VuGraph shows watching the big championship matches with expert commentary get full rooms).

So, I think it's possible that someone can put together an interesting "show" with people playing D&D. However, I think it will require a very creative approach, and probably exactly the right people involved. It certainly wouldn't be just focusing a camera on people playing D&D in a home game.

I still stick to the idea that the best thing to help the game would be brief appearances in the media of people playing D&D, going to play D&D, etc. as if it's something reasonably normal.

 

[SiderisAnon]

D&D Movies

While I don't remember any being people sitting around playing seriously, when WOTC did that competition of D&D video clips, there were several that captured the feel of game play quite nicely. At least one was just someone moving miniatures around on the screen, but it was believable as session. You may be able to find something there -- assuming they're still on the web.

However, I have to agree with a number of other posters that a typical D&D game would be boring to an outsider. Now, if you had some time and skill, you could edit the recording of the game down to the most interesting bits and then switch to an animation of what their characters were doing. (The "imagination view", as it were.) What you'd have would be an awful lot like "The Gamers". (Which while being an blast of a movie, wasn't all that serious.)

The truth is, I don't think most of us just don't take the hobby serious enough to produce an actual "serious" movie about a gaming session. People are going to go for the laugh. (Heck, they go for the laugh IN my game, why wouldn't they do it in a movie about the game?)


Of course, I could be wrong. I would never have believed that millions of people would watch poker on TV.

 

[RFisher]

Yes, there are still D&D-phobic people out there.

Oh, I'm not denying that. There will always be a few people like that. But I think we often think there is a general stigma attached to our hobby that I just haven't seen real evidence of. Most people have considered my choice of hobby to be no stranger than their own.

I will note that very popular show in the 50s was "Championship Bridge" with Charles Goren.

Of course, if you're into bridge you've already learned to enjoy being a spectator whenever your hand ends up being "dummy".

But I am constantly amazed by what people will watch. e.g. I can understand the appeal of playing golf. I have more trouble, however, understanding the appeal of watching it on TV.

But in those examples, I believe, the people watching are mostly already fans of the activity & less a way to recruit newbies.

 

[Dykstrav]

Oh, I'm not denying that. There will always be a few people like that. But I think we often think there is a general stigma attached to our hobby that I just haven't seen real evidence of. Most people have considered my choice of hobby to be no stranger than their own.

Yeah, these days maybe so. Seems like the MMORPG crowd has gotten the cloistered nerd reputation these days, even among D&D players. D&D is closer than ever to being 'mainstream,' especially with how well the Lord of the Rings movies did. I remember it being quite different when I started playing may a year ago though...

That being said... I don't know how fun it'd really be to watch a D&D show. I can see myself constantly saying, "I would have done this instead of that." For me, it's just more fun to play things than to watch them being played. For example, I actually enjoy playing baseball but it's boring to watch. Same thing with tennis. I'll play tennis with girlfriends but I can't watch it. About the only thing I actually enjoy watching more than doing myself are combative sports (boxing, kickboxing, et cetera), and that's mostly so I can observe technique and try to learn a thing or two myself.

 

[VirgilCaine]

That being said... I don't know how fun it'd really be to watch a D&D show. I can see myself constantly saying, "I would have done this instead of that."

I do that all the time with movies.

 

[GreatLemur]

Well, RPGMP3.com has The World's Largest Dungeon as both audio downloads and as a podcast. I suppose that's something.

Hell yes. That was what I was about to post. The RPGMP3.com crew (and the Yog-Sothoth.com crew, for that matter) prove pretty nicely that gaming can be a great spectator sport. Of course, at least half the entertainment comes from the players' out-of-game side conversation...

 

[I'm A Banana]

Call me a pessimist, but I don't think any game that requires coordinating the schedule of 5-7 people in order to sit in the same room for four hours and pretend their in a fantasy world is suffering from a whole lot of bad PR. Chick tracts and a few biases aside, I think the reality of the matter is that the game just cannot be accessible to the broad swath of busy workers and hard players who want to be passive observers of things that remind them of themselves or participants in hard physical activity that make up the majority of at least the US.

Basically, I think D&D is about as accessible as it ever is going to get in its current form, and I don't think public opinion stops people from trying it ("devil worship" nonesense aside). I just think that there aren't a whole lot of people that D&D is *suitable* for. And the people it is suitable for, it largely reaches.

 

[jmucchiello]

2) A video showing a group that doesn't fall into the stereotype probably won't be that interesting. It's just a bunch of people sitting around a table talking, and occasionally rolling dice. It would probably be like watching poker on TV, but without any of the analysis or tension that makes actually watching poker so compelling.

TV poker also benefits greatly from editing. Most "final table" matches shown on ESPN in 2 hours actually last 6-10 hours. They only show the hands with interesting "beats" (as in tempo).

And Olgar, you left out the commentator using a telestrator to show how the Paladin could 5-foot step to set up a Cleave after the smite evil.